SHARM EL SHEICH (dpa-AFX) – The first cornerstones for the planned final declaration of the UN climate conference in Egypt have been met with criticism from environmentalists. The head of the Greenpeace team in Sharm el-Sheikh, Yeb Sano, expressed his “shock” on Tuesday that the phase-out of oil, gas and coal, which is inevitable in view of the climate crisis, was not even mentioned. It is not credible that the Egyptian conference president Samih Schukri simply forgot the point – despite corresponding suggestions from India and the EU, for example.
The mammoth meeting in Sharm el Sheikh with representatives from around 200 countries is scheduled to end on Friday. The key points for a final declaration compiled by the Egyptian host mention, among other things, that more climate protection is urgently needed in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, as agreed in Paris in 2015. The highly controversial issue of compensation for loss and damage suffered is also mentioned, but without the concrete promises hoped for by poorer states.
Schukri had warned the day before that one had to “shift up a gear”. He expects that by Wednesday evening only “very few questions will remain unanswered”. The work should then be brought together on Thursday.
Sano complained that the influence of the oil, gas and coal lobby could be felt everywhere at the conference. “They have appeared here in record numbers in order to decouple climate protection from the end of fossil fuels as far as possible.”/toz/DP/jha